Interactive Community Media for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence in South Sudan

Young women and men were involved in the production of a series of videos in South Sudan about their life stories and those of their elders. Working as media facilitators in their communities, the young participants gathered and shared powerful life stories, contributing meaningfully to the reconstruction of ties among communities, shaken by the protracted war. The UNESCO Juba office implements the project, aiming at creating a culture of peace through inter-generational dialogue. In a country that has been dragged into conflict and war so many times and where the illiteracy levels reach 80% of the population, getting to know one another is an opportunity to overcome the dividing lines and jointly build peace.

More specifically, through training, the participants became able to identify key issues related to a conflict and realized the potential of the media to foster mutual understanding and reconciliation by producing dialogue-based content.

The young trained participants guided their peers and elders in their communities to tell their stories, focusing on the changes before, during and after the conflict.

Through the implementation of the project communities introduced themselves to each other on a very personal level.

In total 105 young people from 6 different communities were trained and 2334 people participated. 6 video have been produced and several screenings and community dialogue sessions have taken place. Additional screenings are planned within the UN Protection of Civilians site for the Internally Displaced Persons.

Language
English

Highlights

Young women and men were involved in the production of a series of videos in South Sudan about their life stories and those of their elders. Working as media facilitators in their communities, the young participants gathered and shared powerful life stories, contributing meaningfully to the reconstruction of ties among communities, shaken by the protracted war. The UNESCO Juba office implements the project, aiming at creating a culture of peace through inter-generational dialogue.

The UNESCO Nairobi Office elaborated a toolkit for media reporting on peace, reconciliation and tolerance in Uganda that has been used to develop the local media’s (print, radio and community media) respective capacity. The project illustrates the positive role that the traditional and new media can have in making the culture of peace a tangible reality in Northern Uganda.

More than 500 young women and men from all over the world came together during the 8th UNESCO Youth Forum from 29 to 31 October, 2013 to discuss and reflect on the challenges young people face and to review the organisation’s operational strategy on Youth 2014-2021.

The UNESCO Office in Beirut and the Youth Forum for Youth Policy are jointly organizing a national consultation meeting in Lebanon. Its purpose is to share updates on the national youth policy process among young professionals and activists of civil society, and reflect together on the role of civil society and young people in the implementation and monitoring of the national youth policy.